Motionless mixers are static mixing devices generally used to intermix two viscous fluids. For example, one may wish to mix a thermoset, which consists of a resin and a hardener, e.g. epoxy. This can be done by simultaneously passing both the hardener and resin, in their liquid forms, into a conduit of a motionless mixer containing a multiplicity of baffles. As the fluids travel down through the bore of the conduit they are intermixed in stages corresponding to each baffle of the mixer.
Conventional motionless mixers are typically manufactured from plastic by injecting molding, thereby considerably reducing production costs when made on a large scale basis. Representative examples of such motionless mixers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No(s). 3,286,992, 3,953,002, 3,635,444, 4,840,493 and 4,850,705. The plastic mixers are generally comprised of alternately right- and left-handed helically-curved baffles which are either individually disposed within a bore or are adjacently combined during manufacture to form a single unit insert which is disposed within a bore.
The injection molded motionless mixers are molded in discrete lengths which may comprise eight serially connected baffles. Mixing applications may require two or more of these motionless mixers to be used in series end to end to increase the desired level of mixing. It is known in such an arrangement to use indexing hubs on adjacent motionless mixer elements to position those elements rotationally relative to one another. However, these arrangements do not provide any means by which adjacent elements can be interconnected axially to maintain the elements firmly together.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a releasable interconnector arrangement capable of firmly connecting adjacent motionless mixer elements together axially while at the same time providing the desired rotational indexing to provide the desired angular relationship of one element to the other about their axes thereby to facilitate mixer assembly and disassembly together with retention of the serially connected mixer elements in the mixer housing.